The United States is taking steps to secure its supply of critical minerals amid concerns over reliance on foreign sources, particularly China. These efforts include both government initiatives to stockpile minerals and private sector innovations to extract them from domestic sources.
The White House and the U.S. Export-Import Bank launched "Project Vault," an emergency national stockpile of critical minerals, on February 2nd. According to Fortune, industry analysts believe this is a necessary "first step of many" to break China's supply chain dominance of minerals, including rare earths. The Trump administration had previously invested directly in U.S. and Canadian critical minerals mining and processing companies over the past 10 months.
Meanwhile, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the Eagle Mine, the only active nickel mine in the U.S., is testing a new process to extract more nickel from lower-quality ore. According to MIT Technology Review, the mine's owner began testing a fermentation-derived broth developed by the startup Allonnia earlier this year. The broth is mixed with concentrated ore to capture and remove impurities. Kent Sorenson, Allonnia's chief technology officer, stated that this approach could help companies continue operating sites that have declining nickel concentrations. "This approach could help companies continue operating sites that, like Eagle Mine, have burned," Sorenson said. The Eagle Mine is nearing the end of its life as nickel concentration is falling and could soon drop too low to warrant digging.
These actions come amidst growing concerns about supply chain disruptions, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the trade war with China. The trade war led to what Fortune described as "the weaponization of the dominance" of critical mineral supply chains.
Discussion
AI Experts & Community
Be the first to comment